Tag Archives: saudi arabia

Five foreigners, convicted of murder and robbery, have been executed in Saudi Arabia as the rate of capital punishment surges in the kingdom. Saudi Interior Ministry announced in a statement on Monday that the five foreign nationals, convicted of killing an Indian guard and stealing money from a safe, were beheaded in the Red Sea city of Jeddah earlier in the day. The statement, which was carried by the Saudi Press Agency, identified the executed as Khaled Fetini and Ibrahim Nasser from Yemen, Hassan Omar from Chad, Salem Idriss from Eritrea and Abdel Wahhab Abdel Maeen from Sudan.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Yemen's Shiite rebels attacked Saudi border posts, sparking fierce fighting overnight that killed three Saudi troops and dozens of rebels, the kingdom said. Saudi-led airstrikes continued to bomb rebel positions inside Yemen on Friday, including a strike in the capital, Sanaa, that killed at least 20 civilians. The attack late Thursday by the rebels, known as Houthis, was the most dramatic border incident since Saudi Arabia launched an intense campaign of airstrikes against the rebels just over a month ago. It also brought to 11 the number of Saudi soldiers killed so far in border skirmishes during the air campaign. The assault underscored how the Iran-backed Houthis are still capable of launching major operations despite the airstrikes that have relentlessly targeted their positions and those of their allies — military units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Almost 4,000 Saudi forces fled their border bases in anticipation of Riyadh’s order for launching a ground assault on Yemen, European diplomatic sources said on Sunday.“The intel gathered by the western intelligence agencies showed that the Saudi military forces have fled their bases, military centers and bordering checkpoints near Yemen in groups,” diplomatic sources were quoted as saying by Iraq’s Arabic-language Nahrain Net news website.The European sources said that the Saudi forces’ mass AWOL forced Riyadh to declare ceasefire and dissuaded it from launching ground attacks against Yemen. Other reports also said that over 10,000 soldiers from different Saudi military units have fled the army battalions and the National Guard. Experts believe that the Saudi army lacks strong morale to launch a ground invasion of Yemen and such an attack would be considered as a suicide for Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia has put security forces on alert for a possible militant attack on vital energy installations and popular shopping malls, Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki said on Monday. “There was information about a possible terrorist attack targeting a mall or Saudi Aramco installation. We have passed this information to the security forces to be on alert,” Al-Turki said in a statement. Al-Turki said he had no further information about the threat. Riyadh has been carrying out airstrikes against Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 26 in Operation Decisive Storm for restoring the country’s legitimacy. “Saudi Arabia is targeted by terrorism. Usually in such situations (conflicts), there are attempts by terrorist groups to take advantage and carry out attacks,” said Al-Turki. On Saturday, guards at the gates of a central Riyadh shopping mall stopped single men from entering and searched the bags of female shoppers. In 2006, four Al-Qaeda militants breached the gates of Saudi Aramco’s Abqaiq plant but couldn’t cause significant damage. Since then Saudi Arabia has strengthened the security of energy infrastructure and set up a 40,000-strong force for the purpose.